


a lot of love

by HeddersTheOwl



Category: Uncharted
Genre: Angst, Dog fic, F/M, Guns, Making Up, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 18:16:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4845485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeddersTheOwl/pseuds/HeddersTheOwl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate gets a dog, some prodding from friends and, eventually, gets the girl (again) (sort of)</p>
            </blockquote>





	a lot of love

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this fic for my lovely friend Lizzard Killerbee who is going through some tricky stuff atm, so I hope you like this Lizzard! Unedited bc I cbb

“Aww, I think she likes you old man.” Nate said playfully, nodding at the small white dog jumping around Sully excitedly.

“Shut up,” Sully said, sitting down heavily on the ragged couch and grumbling when Sasha jumped onto his lap, “You shouldn’t let rats on the furniture you know.” Despite the gruff front, he still rubbed her belly when she rolled over. Sasha wagged her tail so hard she almost fell off her perch, and Nate laughed at her.

“Why’d you get this mongrel again kid? Don’t tell me you were lonely.”

When Nate didn’t respond with so much as a wise-crack, Sully looked up from the writhing terrier to find him staring forlornly at the phone. Not that Nate would ever describe himself as forlorn, but at this point, Sully knew the kid better than he knew his own self. He let the silence hang for a while, before letting out a sigh.

“You could call her, you know.”

Nate winced like he’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar- or more likely with his fingers in someone’s purse.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nate tried, wilting under Sully’s unimpressed gaze. Sasha took that moment to wriggle out from Sully’s still hand and sniff at Nate’s feet until he scooped her up and ruffled her head.

“Besides,” Nate said, tickling Sasha’s pointy ears until they twitched, “she doesn’t want to talk to me.”

“Did she tell you that?” Sully asked in the tone he’d cultivated over the years to sound casual in front of marks. He knew it wouldn’t fool Nate for a second.

“Not in so many words.” Nate replied with a calculated calmness. Before Sully could even raise his eyebrows, Nate ploughed on, “So did you hear about the discovery of another of those coins we found back in Somalia? There’s talk of there being some ancient treasure trove underground somewhere, what do you say we take it off the British Museum’s hands?”

Sully lit a cigar slowly and took a puff.

“Alright kiddo,” he said, “what do you have so far?”

\---

“Oh no,” Chloe said, folding her arms and leaning back against the front door of the black convertible that matched her nails, very handy for night time missions like this one, “You’re not leaving the dog in my car while you gallivant.”

“Aw, come on Chloe,” Nate said, hands open in a pleading gesture, “she’s fully house trained...mostly.”

“Mostly?!”

“Did I say mostly, I meant entirely.” Nate hedged, feigning distraction by looking up at the Welsh castle he was about to break in to with Cutter. The amount of detours these treasure hunts had, it was a wonder they ever found anything at all. Nate considered the cold stone before him. Maybe the other window would be a better access point, that drainpipe didn’t look like it would old for long anyway, and-

“Look.” Chloe said, catching Nate’s attention again. She had that faint frown wrinkling her brow which always meant she was about to say something she really didn’t want to get into but felt she had to. That was never good. “Look, I know you’re all torn up about Elena, but you have a life dependant on you now. You need to straighten your priorities now you’ve got this little buddy around.”

Sasha barked on cue when Chloe nodded to her, and got up from lying at Nate’s feet to sniff around his legs instead. She’d had a very long walk around the castle as the cased it, so was understandably tired.

“I know how to look after her.” Nate insisted, hurt flaring through him. Did the team really think so little of him that he couldn’t even take care of his own dog? Sasha’s cold nose poked his ankle and he picked her up, cuddling her like a baby and leaning his face away from her gentle licks.  
He looked back to Chloe. “Yeah, maybe I haven’t been the most stable person in the world before, but like you said, I have Sasha now. I can change for what’s important to me, I can prove it.”

Chloe clicked her tongue.

“Who exactly are you trying to prove that to, Nate? Elena isn’t here-”

“You think I don’t know that?”

“So then who? Us? Or yourself? I just don’t want an innocent creature caught in the crossfire of your whirlwind of a life.”

“I didn’t just pick her up on a whim! I thought long and hard about this, she’s only here now because I’m too broke to afford a good kennel because someone’s contacts betrayed us and got my accounts frozen!”

“Maybe if someone bloody else hadn’t been antagonising them the entire time-”

“Hey! Are you trying to wake every guard in the place?” Charlie whisper-yelled at them from the corner. They simultaneously gave him the finger, but when Chloe started again her voice was a careful murmur.

“I don’t mean to say you can’t do it, I’ve just seen so much lost in this line of work. I don’t want to you to have to lose Sasha too, so close to losing Elena.”

Nate ignored her for a while, giving the sleepy bundle of love in his arms a soft belly rub. Eventually he said, “Elena’s not lost, she’s just not here. Sasha is here, and I plan on keeping it this way.” The last was said with a challenging look at Chloe, daring her to suggest he couldn’t do it.  
Chloe grinned.

“Good to see you’re serious about this.” She said, a teasing lilt pushing into her voice, as close to an apology either of them would ever give.

“I’m always serious,” Nate replied with a smile tugging at the sides of his mouth, “by the way, did you know that I once stole Sully’s wallet at the tender age of 14?”

“You’ve told me this three times but I still don’t believe a word of it.” Chloe baited, unfolding her arms and putting her hands on her hips.

“I so did, I was a pick pocketing prodigy!”

“Nate, for god’s sake, I don’t care if you were the Artful bloody Dodger himself, stop shouting get into this castle before you get us all arrested!” Cutter yelled back.

“Blimey Cutter, shout the house down why don’t you.” Chloe called reprimanded with a wink at Nate.

“Charlie, please, we’re trying to do a heist here, keep it down.” Nate said cheekily, readjusting Sasha in his arms.

Charlie grumbled into silence, and Nate bit his lip.

“I really should get a move on though, are you sure you can’t take Sasha? She’s no trouble I promise, just look at her.” Nate squished Sasha next to his face and gave Chloe the same puppy dog eyes that he used to try to use for an extra scoop of ice-cream from the nuns at the orphanage. It never worked on the nuns, but Chloe liked him a lot more than they ever did.

Chloe sighed and moved away from the door, gesturing with one hand at the shot-gun seat.

“If she scratches up my new leather seats I’m never doing anything for you ever again.”

Nate cracked a smile.

“You’re the best, Chloe!”

“I know.”

\---

The villain of the day, James Griever, stood in front of the unlocked puzzle door with his gun pointed squarely at Nate as he pontificated about his evil plot or whatever. Nate was only half listening, trying to keep from giving any sort of notification that Sully was creeping along the balcony at the corner of his eye, training his own gun on Griever. Plus the icon he was holding was really heavy.

“So you see Nate, the only real winner here, is-”

“Nate!”

“Elena?!” Nate twisted around to the source of the voice. Elena was stood in the entrance to the Old Hall with a camera around her neck. Her hair was a birds nest, she had cuts and bruises all over her exposed arms, her clothes were ripped, her face was dirty and she was absolutely beautiful.

“I’d ask how you’ve been, but this seems like a bad time.” Elena half-joked, her expression hard as she looked in the direction of Griver’s gun.

“I’ve got through worse.” Nate pointed out, subtly straightening his shoulders to make it look like he totally wasn’t struggling to keep hold his golden statue. Based on Elena’s slightly raised eyebrows, she wasn’t buying it.

“But this time,” Griever said, sounding annoyed, “You won’t live to see any treasure. And neither will your lady friend.”

There was a gunshot, and Elena put a hand to her chest. Shit.

Nate dropped the statue on his foot and stumbled towards her, but stopped when she moved her hand and there was no blood. She was even smiling.

“Good shot Sully,” She called out, then laughed. Nate turned and saw Sully climbing down from the balcony, and a dead Griever on the floor. Relief flooded through Nate, quickly followed by searing pain from his foot, which adrenaline and fear had been masking.

“Yeah, thanks Sully. Now I think I’m going to lie down for a few years.” Nate said, sinking to the floor to take the weight off his bad foot. Sully and Elena exchanged worried looks, and wasn’t that just far too familiar.

“Come on Kiddo, we still have to get out of here, and snag at least as much cash as Griver stole from us. Hopefully a lot more if we can carry it.”

There was a rumble from the ceiling and a few crashes, and Sully sighed.

“Alright, just get out of here then. You know, just once I’d like to end one of these little escapades without an ancient city crashing down around us.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” Nate panted. His foot really hurt. It felt like he could feel his bones grinding against each other, sending sparks of pain skittering up his leg, and his vision was starting to go a little blurry.

Elena’s small hands pulled at his arm to get him to lean on her. The rest of the trip was a blur of pain and muffled shouting, until they finally reached the car and Nate was bundled into the back seat. His leg was elevated on Elena’s lap, and the last thing he really remembers was Sasha jumping onto his chest and lying down to keep watch over his sleep.

\---

“So you got a dog huh?”

Elena and Nate were sat in Nate’s apartment on the sofa together, Nate’s foot in bulky plaster. She was sat very close to him, her hand stroking his hair idly. Everyone else had left after making fun of Nate profusely for getting through infinity gunfights with barely a graze, but holding a statue for ten minutes got him laid off for three months. Sasha was sniffing Nate’s cast with interest, licking it occasionally as if to try to speed up the healing process.

“Yeah,” Nate said with a tired smile, “I even trained her, look. Sasha, sit.”

Sasha looked up at the sound of her name, then went back to sniffing Nate’s foot.

“Yeah, she’ll be competing at Crufts in no time.” Elena teased, ruffling Nate’s hair annoyingly until he knocked her hand away with a mock glare.

“It’s a work in progress.” Nate conceded. He turned his head to look at Elena, and she was looking right back, her expression soft but slightly worried.

“I’ve missed you,” Nate said, and Elena took his hand. “I’ve missed you more than I thought I really could. I know you left because I refused to change, and you don’t have to come back, but I still...I’m trying. I have Sasha now, and she’s giving me some stability. I’m never going to be someone who has a normal nine-to-five job, but I’m really trying to get to a point where I’m not in danger every other week. There’s someone who needs me to come home, and I couldn’t see that you needed me too.”

Elena shook her head, smiling softly.

“I never wanted you to do a nine-to-five. I just wanted to know that you wouldn’t just leave without a word again. Now, I still don’t know but I think...I think I could be convinced.”

Nate grinned and leaned in for a kiss, but instead he got a face-full of fur and excited little legs scrambling on his chest. Elena was in fits of laughter as Sasha licked at Nate’s face, until Nate started tickling her and she shrieked, which made Sasha jump on her instead.

They weren’t a family yet, but there was definitely a lot of love in the room.


End file.
